The Daily Wire notes a prediction that perhaps a quarter to a half of colleges and universities may go out of business in the next several years. This was already beginning before the corona virus arrived and accelerated the trend.
Students studying at home via the Internet, finishing up the spring term, may decide to stay there and not have to borrow the humongous money going away to school entails. Others will decide the limited offering on-campus doesn't look attractive and take a "gap year."
A question not addressed is of what value degrees from defunct schools will have in the future. One suspects at minimum the value will decline, perhaps dramatically.
How long before people who never finished will start claiming to have a degree from a school whose records are now gone or inaccessible You know that will further devalue such degrees.
We could be witnessing the very first toppling dominoes in a serious cascade. I am very glad I got in, and out, of higher education when I did. It looks like those were its glory years, perhaps never to return.
I'd hope that schools, or those parts of schools, that teach usable job skills would survive. We'll still need engineers, accountants, IT people, physicians, veterinarians, teachers and the like.
We've never needed people with degrees in women's studies, sociology, Russian literature, communications, and anthropology. Those are things people can read on their own time and meet in on-line groups to discuss, if they're so motivated.
